The Winners of Kate’s Epic 10-Year Blog Anniversary Competition

Last month it was my ten-year blog anniversary and as part of my celebrations I launched a competition, with first prize being ten books, something that was only possible because of the generosity of several publishers (American Mystery Classics, British Library, Crippen & Landru, Dean Street Press, Galileo Publishing and Harper Collins). To enter the competition entrants could like the post for one entry and then answer a question in the comments for a bonus entry. The question was: Which 10 books would you recommend to someone new to classic crime fiction? I really enjoyed reading everyone’s answers and I hope to do a post analysing entrants’ responses as it was interesting to see which authors/books were mentioned the most, which authors appeared more than I expected, and which writers perhaps did not feature as strongly as I had anticipated.

However, for now let us just focus on who has won three prizes. All the entries were placed into a random name picker online (which involved a lot of typing I can tell you!) and the name chosen for third prize, with just the one entry, was…

Kenny Shoe!

Next in second place is…

Adam Merrivale!

This was Adam’s answer to the bonus question:

1. Agatha Christie – And Then There Were None
2. Anthony Berkeley – The Poisoned Chocolates Case
3. John Dickson Carr – Till Death Do Us Part
4. Dorothy Sayers – The Nine Tailors
5. Ethel Lina White – Some Must Watch
6. E. C. Bentley – Trent’s Last Case
7. Richard Hull – Murder of My Aunt
8. Freeman Wills Crofts – 12.30 from Croydon
9. Nicholas Blake – The Beast Must Die
10. A. A. Milne – The Red House Mystery

That means that we only have first place to go.

In first place is…

Sarah Quince!

And here are the ten titles Sarah would recommend to someone new to classic crime fiction:

1. The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey
2. The Poisoned Chocolates Case – Anthony Berkeley
3. Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie
4. The Nine Tailors – Dorothy L Sayers
5. Malice Aforethought – Francis Iles
6. And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
7. Death in High Heels – Christianna Brand
8. A Man Lay Dead – Ngaio Marsh
9. The Franchise Affair – Josephine Tey
10. Strangers on a Train – Patricia Highsmith

Congratulations to all the winners!

You should have received an email from me now, so check your spam if you can’t see it. Failing that please contact me via my blog contact page, as I need your postal info by the 7^th July.